Theater History & Literature

By ianwebb
  • Period: 550 BCE to 220 BCE

    Greek Theater

  • 534 BCE

    Greek Tragedy

  • Period: 509 BCE to 27 BCE

    The Roman Republic

  • Period: 499 BCE to 448 BCE

    The Greco-Persian Wars

  • 458 BCE

    Agamemnon

    by Aeschylus
  • 431 BCE

    Medea

    by Euripides
  • Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE

    Peloponnesian War

  • 411 BCE

    Lysistrata

    by Aristophanes
  • Period: 336 BCE to 31 BCE

    Hellenistic Theater

  • 330 BCE

    Aristotle's Poetics

  • 206 BCE

    The Braggart Soldier

    by Plautus
  • Period: 204 BCE to 64

    Roman Drama

  • 195 BCE

    The Roman-Spartan War

  • 189 BCE

    The Galatian War

  • Period: 49 BCE to 45 BCE

    Caesar's Civil War

  • Period: 48 BCE to 45 BCE

    The Pontic War

  • Period: 27 BCE to 476

    Roman Empire

  • 398

    The Council of Carthage

  • Period: 476 to 900

    Byzantine Era

  • Period: 500 to 1550

    Medieval Period

    Art & Culture
  • Period: 526 to 532

    Iberian War

  • 568

    Roman State Produced Theater Ends

  • Period: 680 to 1355

    Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

  • 692

    Decline of Western Theater

    Church council passes a resolution intended to forbid theatrical performances of all kinds. This ends Theatre in the West.
  • Period: 900 to 1050

    Early Middle Ages

    Liturgical Dramas
  • 935

    Dulcitius

    by Hrotsvitha
  • Period: 1015 to 1016

    Cnut the Great's conquest of England

  • Period: 1050 to 1300

    High Middle Ages

  • Period: 1073 to 1075

    Saxon Rebellion

  • 1088

    The Rebellion of 1088

    Concerned the division of lands in the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy between his two sons William Rufus and Robert Curthose.
  • Period: 1096 to 1099

    The First Crusade

  • Period: 1145 to 1149

    The Second Crusade

  • Period: 1147 to 1242

    The Northern Crusades

  • Period: 1173 to 1174

    The Revolt of 1173-74

  • Period: 1189 to 1192

    The Third Crusade

  • Period: 1202 to 1214

    The Anglo-French War of 1202–1214

  • Period: 1202 to 1204

    The Fourth Crusade

  • Period: 1228 to 1229

    The Sixth Crusade

  • Period: 1248 to 1254

    The Seventh Crusade

  • Period: 1294 to 1303

    The Anglo-French War of 1294–1303

  • Period: 1300 to 1500

    The Late Middle Ages

  • Period: 1321 to 1357

    The Second War of Scottish Independence

  • Period: 1337 to 1453

    The Hundred Years' War

  • 1400

    The Second Shepherds Play

    by Wakefield Master
  • 1400

    The English Invasion of Scotland

  • Period: 1400 to

    Renaissance Period

    Arts & Culture
  • 1480

    Spanish Inquisition

    Enforces Christianity
  • Period: 1484 to

    The Tudor Era

  • Period: 1494 to 1559

    The Italian Wars

  • 1497

    The Cornish Rebellion of 1497

    The people of Cornwall responds to King Henry VII raising taxes for a war against Scotland.
  • 1545

    The Creation of Master of Revels

    Sir Thomas Cawarden was the first and supervised the production and financing of often elaborate court entertainments. He later was the official issuer of licenses to theatres and theatrical companies and the censor of publicly performed plays.
  • 1548

    Hôtel de Bourgogne Becomes the First Public Theatre

    Home to the first authorized theatre troupe in Paris, the Confrérie de la Passion
  • 1551

    The Rise of Commedia Dell'arte

    The "comedy of the profession" was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy. The characters of the commedia usually represent fixed social types and stock characters, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado.
  • Period: 1558 to

    The Elizabethan Era

  • 1559

    The Elizabethan Religious Settlement

    Banned religious and political plays in England.
  • Period: 1562 to

    The French Wars of Religion

  • Period: 1568 to

    The Eighty Years' War

  • Period: 1569 to 1570

    The Rising of the North

    aka Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was the unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.
  • Period: 1569 to 1573

    The First Desmond Rebellion

    Fitz Maurice's first attack on the English colony at Kerrycurihy south of Cork city.

  • Women are Licensed to Appear on Stage

    In Spain women actors were allowed but remained controversial until 1599, when a royal decree stipulated that only women married to company members could perform.
  • Period: to

    The Spanish Golden Age

  • Period: to

    Spanish Golden Age Theater

  • Dr. Faustus

    by Christopher Marlowe
  • Period: to

    The Nine Years' War

    In Ireland

  • Confrerie de la Passion Relinquish Monopoly

    In France the company of amateur actors' monopoly as the only recognized company is challanged.
  • Period: to

    Baroque Period

    Arts & Culture

  • The Chamberlain's Men are Renamed The King's Men

    Recognized theater company in England.

  • Royal Council Licenses only Eight Companies

    This restricts the companies in Spain.
  • Period: to

    Jacobean Era

  • King Lear

    by William Shakespeare

  • Duchess of Malfi

    by John Webster

  • The Original Globe Theatre is Destroyed by Fire

    Replacement is soon built in England.
  • Period: to

    The Thirty Years' War

  • Fuente Ovejuna

    by Lope de Vega

  • Neo-classic Ideal Takes Hold

  • Period: to

    Caroline Era

  • Period: to

    The Personal Rule

    aka Eleven Years' Tyranny. This was the period when King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland ruled without a Parliament. He claimed entitlement under the Royal Prerogative.

  • Life is a Dream

    by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

  • The English Civil War

  • Period: to

    Puritan Rule of England

  • British Public Theatres Close

  • King Charles I Beheaded

    The English ban on theater becomes permanent.
  • Period: to

    Rule of England by Oliver Cromwell

    Puritan leader

  • British Public Theatres Reopen

  • Period: to

    The Anglo-Spanish War

  • Period: to

    The Restoration Era

  • Tartuffe

    by Molière

  • First Performance Recorded in the Colonies

  • Period: to

    The War of Devolution

  • Period: to

    The Franco-Dutch War

  • The Country Wife

    by William Wycherley

  • Phaedra

    by Jean Racine

  • The Rover

    by Aphra Behn
  • Period: to

    The Nine Years' War

  • Boom of North American Theater

  • Spanish Productive Period Ends

  • Period: to

    The Great Northern War

  • Period: to

    The War of the Spanish Succession

  • Autos Sacramentales Move to Public Theatres

    Spain
  • Period: to

    Rococo Period

    Arts & Culture

  • The Stono Rebellion

    aka Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion. Slave rebellion on British colony of South Carolina
  • Period: to

    The Seven Years' War

  • Period: to

    Neo-classical Period

    Art & Culture

  • Religious Drama Banned in Spain

    Auto Sacramentales
  • Period: to

    The American Revolutionary War

  • Period: to

    The French Revolutionary Wars